The invention relates to a portable device suitable for carrying on the body of a user to generate a vacuum for the medical vacuum treatment of wounds on the bodies of humans or animals, comprising a vacuum-producing suction pump in a first housing part of the device, a vessel for receiving body liquids, in particular, wound exudates suctioned out of a wound, wherein the vessel can be releasably attached to the first housing part of the device and a vacuum can be applied by the suction pump in the attached condition, and wherein a connection is provided on the vessel for a suction tube leading to the body, so that vacuum communication between the suction pump, the vessel and the suction tube leading to the body can be established, a pressure sensor that is disposed between the vessel and the suction pump in order to measure the pressure in one tube section, a programmable electronic control unit that can control the suction pump at least taking account of defined and/or definable parameters and the pressure values measured by the pressure sensor. Where it is stated above that a device is portable this means that the patient can carry the device so that he is mobile and his wound can nevertheless be constantly treated, i.e. without interruption. The portable device can be held and carried on the patient's body by means of any attachment means, in particular and preferably in the form of a flexible belt or a shoulder carrying strap. A portable device of the type stated here can, of course, also be used in stationary operation, that is, detached from the body of the patient; in this case, it can, for example, be affixed to a care bed or next to a care bed.
Devices for vacuum treatment have already been described several times, in particular by US 2004/0073151 A1, WO 2009/047524 A2, WO 2007/030599 A2, or EP 1 905 465 A1, EP 777 504 B, and by DE 10 2009 038 130 A, and DE 10 2009 038 131 A of the assignee.
In such devices for the vacuum treatment of wounds, a suction pump communicates with the wound or the region of the wound through a suction tube, wherein a wound dressing with a cover material that is impermeable to air is provided for air-tight closure of the wound and the region of the wound, so that a vacuum can be established in the wound space and liquids from the wound space can be suctioned into the aforementioned vessel.
The term vacuum in connection with this invention refers to a lower air pressure than ambient air pressure (atmospheric pressure), in particular inside the wound dressing. The cover material of a wound dressing for air-tight closure of a wound space must therefore be constituted such that it can withstand the established pressure difference so that the vacuum in the wound space can be produced in the first instance and then maintained. However, the wound dressing and covering material typically exhibit a certain degree of compliance. In vacuum therapy for wound treatment, the vacuum is quantitatively expressed as the pressure difference between the ambient air pressure and the air pressure applied underneath the cover material. In vacuum therapy, this pressure difference is typically no more than 250 mmHg (mm of mercury) (1 mmHg=1 Torr=133.322 Pa). This vacuum range not exceeding 250 mmHg has proven advantageous for wound healing. A preferred vacuum range is between 10 and 150 mmHg.
The vacuum applied to the wound using the device can, in typical vacuum therapy, either be kept essentially constant over time or it can vary over time, in particular, cyclically, which can be implemented using an appropriately constituted and programmed control device on the facility producing the vacuum, in particular, depending on further parameters.
To apply the vacuum and preferably also to suction away body fluids, a preferably flexible suction tube, for example, in the form of a drainage tube, is provided that communicates at one end through a port in the region of the wound cover material with the wound environment or the wound space and at the other end with the vessel mentioned above for receiving body fluids or with the facility producing the vacuum.
In addition to the vacuum therapy of wounds, other applications of the device described here are conceivable for providing a vacuum for medical applications, in particular, the removal by suction of any body fluids in medical incontinent care, the care of stoma patients, or for the removal by suction of wound exudates, possibly, using rinsing liquids, and also without the application of a vacuum over considerable periods.
Based on this kind of portable device for generating a vacuum for medical applications, the object of this invention is to further optimize user-friendliness and reliability so that a less technically skilled user or patient is given the feeling of reliably mastering the method of operation of the device.